Story of 1848 Swedish Immigrants to Texas that were relatives of S. M. Swenson

The year 1848, 25 people from Barkeryd arrived to Texas. Most of them were relatives among them Margareta, Sven Magnus mother and her brothers, Anders Palm with wife and six sons and Gustav Palm with wife and four children. The rest of the group consisted of Carl Johannesson with wife and two children and brother Daniel Johannesson. They were brothers to Anders Palm’s wife.

The voyage over the Atlantic began in Göteborg on July 11 where they embarked on the ship ‘Augusta’ with destination Charleston in South Carolina. They presumably had chosen to travel in the summer to avoid bad weather but out on the Atlantic Ocean a storm blow up. The ship was loaded with railroad rails and during the storm the load got lose and the ship started to capsize. The captain lost all hope and their heading for a disaster appeared imminent. Margareta had a strong faith and did not give up. She kneeled on the deck day after day with her arms reaching towards heaven and prayed to God to save them. The 39 passengers did finally land happily in Boston after being at sea for four months. The ship was in such a bad shape that it no longer could be used and was cut up. That was the ship ‘Augusta’s’ last voyage.

In ‘Nils William Olsson’s ‘Swedish passenger arrivals in U.S. ports 1820 -1850’ we get an interesting list of passengers from the ship ‘Augusta’ which sought port of refuge in Boston.

From Boston the group sailed to New York and from there with the ship ‘Stephen F. Austin’ to Galveston continuing with the ship ‘Reliance’ up Galveston Bayon to Houston. On November 13 just over four months after they left Sweden they arrived in Texas.

When they arrived at Galveston Sven Magnus happened by chance to be there and he lodged all except mother Margareta at Washington Hotel in Houston. Then Margareta and he rode to his home Finckley.

It took some days before Sven Magnus had arranged for relatives and fellow countrymen to be picked up. The Swedes with their different clothing and their foreign language became an exotic addition in the Houston landscape.

Excerpts from: S. M. Swenson Family History by Carl Swenson, Goteborg, May 2001

Webmaster Note: For a complete list of the members of the 1848 emigration and links to their genealogy pages, click here: http://www.swedesintexas.com/showreport.php?reportID=38